San Diego police to cull racial data during stops

SAN DIEGO (AP) – San Diego police are reviving a department policy to collect racial data during traffic stops.

U-T San Diego reports (http://bit.ly/1hjDppq) San Diego voluntarily instituted the practice in 2000 to combat a perception that some officers made stops based solely on race, ethnicity, age or gender of people in the car.

Chief Bill Lansdowne said in recent years enforcement of the collection slipped as the department received no requests for the data.

On Tuesday, the chief said controversy over New York’s “stop and frisk” program led him to reinforce his department’s policy to collect traffic stop information.

Lansdowne says instituting the policy will be made easier in February with a new data collection system.